"He was better to me than all my hopes;He was better than all my fears;He made a bridge of my broken works,And a rainbow of my tears."The billows that guarded my sea-girt path,But carried my Lord on their crest;When I dwell on the days of my wilderness marchI can lean on His love for the rest."He emptied my hands of my treasured store,And His covenant love revealed,There was not a wound in my aching heart,But the balm of His breath hath healed.Oh, tender and true was the chastening sore,In wisdom, that taught and tried,Till the soul that He sought was trusting in Him,And nothing on earth beside."He guided by paths that I could not see,By ways that I have not known;The crooked was straight, and the rough was plainAs I followed the Lord alone.I praise Him still for the pleasant palms,And the water-springs by the way,For the glowing pillar of flame by night,And the sheltering cloud by day."Never a watch on the dreariest halt,But some promise of love endears;I read from the past, that my future shall beFar better than all my fears.Like the golden pot, of the wilderness bread,Laid up with the blossoming rod,All safe in the ark, with the law of the Lord,Is the, covenant care of my God."